Sunday, January 19, 2014

Usually my January resolutions for the year to come involve some sort of halfhearted attempt to "eat more healthily." It's a nice ideal and I support the theory behind it. The only problem is that usually that's as far as it goes, with me. Just an ideal that I can feel good about having.

But not this year!

In recent years, every time I go home to visit my family for Christmas or other vacations, I am always surprisingly migraine-free. This winter I took an entire pharmacy with me, medications for sinus congestion, anti-nausea, pain, emergency triptans. I didn't use a single one.

At first I thought maybe it was my parents' new air purifier that made the difference, and resolved to get one for myself. But then, while researching this year's annual healthy-diet-resolution, I started to become suspicious that I had overlooked something rather simple. My sister-in-law has celiac, and because the whole family congregates at holidays, all the edibles are largely gluten-free.

Not having an actual doctor, I consulted my friend Reddit, who usually supplies the kind of anecdotal evidence that is actually useful. Sure enough, things that people have noticed improvement in when eliminating gluten: migraines, chronic sinusitis, nausea, depression, moodiness, lethargy, tiredness. You know, me.

It was worth a try, and within just a couple days my sinusitis was totally gone and hasn't returned. Migraines aren't a daily threat anymore. I'm not queasy 100% of the time anymore. I don't need daily naps after work, and I don't need to spend my Saturdays huddled in bed cradling an ice pack under my head. Just hoping this is actually the solution I've been looking for.

December was Christmas month, as is frequently the case. I headed back to Saskatchewan for a snowy holiday, skilfully evading the storms that delayed the whole country's travel plans like a seasoned mariner navigating fjords (or something; don't expect a good ocean-related simile from me, I only recently learned to not despise the sea). I spent Christmas Day flying, but that turned out to be a pretty great day to travel.

I have mixed feelings about Christmas. I love seeing my family and being on the farm, but I always struggle with a host of more unpleasant emotions that usually culminate in an impressive cocktail featuring guilt and inadequacy. But this has been an annual tradition for some time, and I've learned to take it on the chin. Whatever that means.